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7 MATERIAL NARRATIVE~S AND THE NEGOTIATION OF IDENTITIES THROUGH OBJECTS IN MALIAN ~rHEATRE MARY JO ARNOLI)! • The Sogo biJ masquerade theatre is a vital and thoroughly engaging masquerade tradition performed in :many contemporary communities in the Segou region in Mali. People define this theatre as public entertainment and troupes welcome the attendance of the eIltire community at these events. Although the theatre's origins are shrouded in legend, it is clear from the available oral and written record that these masquerades were already well established in the region by at least the late nineteenth century (Arnoldi 1989). Because of its inherent openness and longevity, this performance tradition provides an especially accessible context within which to explore how each generation of actors uses masquerade objects to fashion a timely and dynamic material narrative. l Sogo bils material narrative draws upon a wealth of visual imagery located in both historical memory and contemporary experience. In the performance the masquerades are activated by song, music, and dance and each character encapsulates attitudes, beliefs, and values that define social identities and provide the participants wjth a fluid commentary upon the nature of human relationships. This case study concentrates on the puppet masquerade theatre in I(irango, a village located on the right bank of the Niger River in the Markala arrolldissement.2 The study opens with an examination of the 1979 performance season and explores the ways that I(irango's three different troupes used specific performative objects to highlight and define their unique history and ethnicity against tlhe backdrop of the larger community. It then examines a second set of uaasquerade characters in the repertoire. People's identification with and their interpretation of these masquerades crosscuts ethnic categories and speaks powerfully to a common colonial and postcolonial experience. The second half of this case study documents the development of the Bamana quarter's masquerade repertoire from circa 1896 to the present. This material history demonstrates how each generation of actors consciously carried forth 168 Mary Jo Arnoldi certain forms and characters from past theatres, while regularly adding new masquerades to the repertoire in order to make the performance relevant to the lived experience of the audience. A BRIEF HISTORY OF KIRANGO I(irango is a village of some antiquity, whose founding predates the consolidation of the Segou empire in the eighteenth century. According to local and regional traditions, I(irango's historical identity, its ethnic composition, and even its physical placement have undergone changes over the past centuries. Currently, there are six residential quarters in I(irango. Bamanakin houses the Bamana (Bambara) farmers; Diakakin is the Boso (Bozo) fishermen's quarter; Thierola, I(onela, and Danbelela are home to the Somono fishermen. Residents of the sixth quarter, known as the Quartier de Service, include more recent immigrants to the area, as well as the overflow from families who reside in the five older quarters. The nexus of social relations for this latter group remains firmly embedded in one of the five original quarters. According to local village historians, contemporary I(irango is the physical amalgamation of two precolonial communities: one originally a Maraka/Bamana settlement and the other a Somono/Boso one. It appears that some time in the nineteenth century, the farming and fishing villages were amalgamated into one community under the authority of the Segou state. The Maraka were the original founders of one of the villages, but most fled from the village when it was invaded and brought under the administration of the Segou state in the early nineteenth century. Because of I(irango's strategic location on the right bank of the Niger River, the Diarra ruler garrisoned military troops there. He also settled members of his lineage into the village and in 1843 I(irango Ben Diarra, the grandson of Ngolo Diarra, the founder of the Diarra dynasty, assumed the position of faama, head of the Segou state (I(onare and I(onare 1983:231). The Bamana in I(irango today, who are primarily farmers, celebrate this military heritage and I(irango's close affiliation with the rulers of the Segou state. Today they often describe themselves as Ngolosi , people of Ngolo Diarra. According to Somono elders, a member of the Cero lineage from Segou city founded a permanent fishing village near the present site of I(irango, some time before the rise of the Bamana Segou state in the late eighteenth century. Somono elders acknowledge that prior to their ancestors' arrival, nomadic Boso fishermen had periodically...

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